Air pollution is a problem that must be solved in the near future; sulfur recovery plants reduce air pollution by converting hydrogen sulfide to a useful product. However, these plants discharge from 5-10% of the hydrogen sulfide in the acid gas feed to the atmosphere after incineration to convert the sulfur compounds in the plant tail gas to sulfur dioxide. For example, in the case of a 1500 t./d. sulfur plant this can amount to 150 tons per day of sulfur dioxide being exhausted into the atmosphere. Current sulfur recovery technology is unable to significantly reduce these figures.